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Three children missing since 2017 found in Marksville

Posted at 12:28 PM, Feb 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-08 13:28:10-05

The U.S. Marshals say they have found three Washington children who had been missing since November 2017 and arrested their grandparents.

On Tuesday, Marshals found the three children, who were allegedly kidnapped from their mother by their grandparents in November 2017, in Marksville.

The U.S. Marshals Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force and the Spokane Police Department have been searching for the children across the country.

Based on Spokane Police Department’s investigation, kidnapping warrants were issued for both suspects in September 2018 by Spokane Superior Court. The Marshals tracked the David and Susan McConnell through 11 states, ultimately finding and arresting them, in possession of 20 firearms, in Marksville, marshals say.

The children were recovered without incident and have been placed in protective custody while the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children works with authorities to reunite them with their mother in Spokane.

“Child abductions are very serious crimes. We could not wish for a better outcome than what happened with this case, with three children recovered safely and the two suspects in custody,” said U.S. Marshal Craig Thayer said. “The cooperation and ongoing relationships between the U. S. Marshals and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as all our partner law enforcement agencies, are key to resolving these types of cases, as is the ability to reach across jurisdictional lines to arrest suspects. In this case, we could not have done it without the hard work of the Spokane Police Department and the other partner agencies on our task force.”

The Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force is a U.S. Marshals-led partnership comprising federal, state and local law enforcement officers from Washington, Oregon and Alaska. The task force’s primary mission is to locate, arrest and return to the justice system the most violent and egregious federal and state fugitives.